S&P 500 closes at a record to erase last of pandemic losses

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Wall Street clawed back the last of the historic&comma; frenzied losses unleashed by the new coronavirus&comma; as the S&amp&semi;P 500 closed at an all-time high on Tuesday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads1--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The day’s move was a relatively mild one&comma; nudging the index up 7&period;79 points&comma; or 0&period;2&percnt;&comma; to 3&comma;389&period;78&period; That eclipses the S&amp&semi;P 500′s previous record closing high of 3&comma;386&period;15&comma; which was set on February 19&comma; before the pandemic shut down businesses around the world and knocked economies into their worst recessions in decades&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The S&amp&semi;P 500′s milestone caps a furious&comma; 51&period;5&percnt; rally that began in late March&period; The index is now up nearly 5&percnt; for the year&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The stock market’s sprint back to an all-time high also means that the nearly 34&percnt; plunge for the S&amp&semi;P 500 from February 19 through March 23 was the quickest bear market on record&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Tremendous amounts of aid from the Federal Reserve and Congress helped launch the rally&comma; which built higher on signs of budding growth in the economy&period; More recently&comma; corporate profit reports that were not as bad as expected have helped boost stock prices&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;160532" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-160532" style&equals;"width&colon; 600px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;londonglossy&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;B18C6EB1-5ABE-4EF1-8A16-B7148303CF34&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"360" class&equals;"size-full wp-image-160532" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-160532" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The S&&num;038&semi;P 500 closed at an all-time high on Tuesday<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The market spent the past few days within striking distance of a new high&comma; but falling short of the milestone&comma; until the last minutes of trading on Tuesday&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 66&period;84 points&comma; or 0&period;2&percnt;&comma; to 27&comma;778&period;07&period; It remains 6&percnt; below its record set in February&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Nasdaq composite had already returned to a record&comma; thanks to huge gains for the big tech stocks that dominate it&period; It hit a new one Tuesday&comma; climbing 81&period;12 points&comma; or 0&period;7&percnt;&comma; to 11&comma;210&period;84&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The lightning recovery is even more remarkable considering how much the economy is still struggling and how uncertain the path ahead remains&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Millions of Americans are continuing to get unemployment benefits&comma; and businesses across the country are still shutting their doors&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Covid-19 continues to seep throughout the world&comma; with more than 5&period;4 million known cases and 170&comma;000 deaths in the United States alone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads2--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Many investors acknowledge the disconnect between the stock market and the broader economy&comma; but they say the rally has been built on top of several supports&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Key among them is that the US Federal Reserve and Congress have ploughed trillions of dollars into the economy&comma; to keep it from plunging even more deeply and to prevent a full-blown financial crisis&period; Their unprecedented moves helped halt the S&amp&semi;P 500’s free-fall in March&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>More recently&comma; the stock market’s rally has morphed from relief that the worst-case scenario of a full-blown financial crisis is off the table to hopes that the economy is on the mend&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;As widespread lockdowns of businesses have eased since the spring&comma; data from across the economy have been showing improvements&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;A report last week said 963&comma;000 US workers filed for unemployment benefits&comma; for example&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It is still a high number&comma; but it is also the first time the tally has dropped below one million since March&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;With such budding economic improvements in hand&comma; investors are looking further into the future and betting on one where corporate profits can broadly bloom again after a vaccine for Covid-19 hits the market later this year or in 2021&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The five biggest companies in the S&amp&semi;P 500 by market value&comma; meanwhile&comma; have continued to pile up blowout profits&comma; even as earnings crater for the rest of the market&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;These big tech companies increasingly drive the S&amp&semi;P 500’s movements almost by themselves&comma; and they have benefited from the pandemic because it accelerated work-from-home and other tech trends&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Apple&comma; Microsoft&comma; Amazon&comma; Facebook and Google’s parent company are all are up more than 16&percnt; for 2020 so far&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The market’s huge gains have been slowing in recent weeks&comma; and many investors say the easiest gains have been made&period; But optimism remains strong across much of Wall Street<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At Goldman Sachs&comma; strategist David Kostin raised his year-end forecast for the S&amp&semi;P 500 to 3&comma;600 from an earlier outlook for 3&comma;000&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads3--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At the same time&comma; though&comma; many risks are still hanging over the market&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Investors are still waiting to see if Congress and the White House can get past their partisan differences and agree on more aid for the economy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Without the stimulus&comma; analysts say the US economy will not be able to make the recovery that investors have been assuming is on the way&period; And that assumption is a huge reason the stock market is as high as it is&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Rising tensions between the United States and China&comma; meanwhile&comma; threatens trade between the world’s two largest economies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Tech stocks have had a few stumbles recently amid worries that China could retaliate against US moves by targeting US chip makers and others&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>t’s important to recognise that the bond market doesn’t seem to trust this rally<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Perhaps the biggest threat of all is if a vaccine for Covid-19 fails come to the market as quickly as markets are expecting&period; That could quickly take a chunk back out of the market’s huge rally&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;For now&comma; though&comma; the market’s momentum remains on a gentle upward slope&period; Even Treasury yields have recently been making a move higher&comma; though their ascent slowed on Tuesday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The yield on the 10-year Treasury dipped to 0&period;67&percnt; from 0&period;69&percnt; late on Monday&period; In March&comma; the yield had touched its record low just beneath 0&period;34&percnt;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Higher yields can be an indication that investors are upgrading their expectations for inflation and the economy&period; But they can also pull some buyers away from stocks into bonds&comma; hurting stock prices in the process&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It’s important to recognise that the bond market doesn’t seem to trust this rally&comma;” said Brian Price&comma; head of investment management for Commonwealth Financial Network&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68cd2ea4ac13a">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; 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